Common

"Momma, momma," the bright-eyed girl at her side skipped to catch up, her curly tail held aloft. "D'you think were gonna go back to Salem? I forgots to tell everyone goodbye."

Kohelet's lips curled into a fond smile, but it did not soften the worried look in her eyes. "I'm sorry my love," she murmured, stretching to brush her muzzle over the girl's growing mane. Somehow it was already almost long enough to fall against her neck, no longer the wispy mohawk of babyhood. Kohelet had eventually grown used to her daughter's fiery coat, so starkly different from the black of all of her previous children. It still made her feel guilty sometimes, as though Amalia's red hue were a scarlet letter carved on her own chest.

In truth, Kohelet had hustled them from the safety of the Badlands before she could change her mind again. She'd been waffling between leaving and staying for the entirety of the girl's existence - from conception to now - and she was tired of her own inaction. She either needed to move on and forget all that happened in the Bay - the loss and the heartbreak and the pain - or she needed to face it head on. Neither of which she could do from the Badlands as she had originally planned. Rafe had his children as his leads, with no place for her to enact her original plans. And she didn't blame him. Couldn't really, considering. He was the one that had opened her eyes - albeit by force - and had given her a chance to see the world as it really was.

"You'll see them again someday," she murmured, her voice tinged with guilt. Amalia had been so excited by the prospect of a trip with her mother that she hadn't asked questions until just now, well on the other side of an exhausting ocean swim, cold night, and now bright new day. The guilt stemmed from the fact that such distraction had been intentional, if only because Amalia would have gladly said goodbye to every sagebrush, songbird, cactus, and shadow she passed in addition to the few residents they'd met during The girl pouted, her joyful cadence slowed, and sidled to a walk at her dam's side. "Okay," she answered quietly, peering out at the semi-open field they'd walked into together. "What is this place?"

Kohelet's gaze roved uneasily across the open space, knowing that she was putting herself at risk by choosing now of all times to come here, with her young daughter no less. "It's a chance for a fresh start," she said, as much to herself as it was to Amalia. "It's called the Commons... its where horses come to find new homes."

mare - mutt - black tobiano - 16.1h - solomon x sicily